Where can I get crawdads to eat?

[86ranger]

I want to add crawdads to my shrimp boil this 4th. Any recommendations? Do stores sell them? Where can I net/grab some? Any regulations or limitations?

[Sean Graf]

Get a couple of Crawdad traps and throw them near the rocks at Folsom.

When we go to Stampede, we throw a couple of traps near the island and leave them there overnight, every single time we've done it, we've caught hundreds!

Pain in the butt to clean though, but it's one of our traditions!

Let one pinch you and tell me if it hurts!

Good Luck!

Sean Graf
www.motherlodelakes.com

[froteur]

try an asian market. if you have one in your area, try ranch 99 market.

-perry-

[Cooch]

There are several shops there. If'n yer into catching them, try the various irrigation sloughs all through out the valley, use raw bacon on a small rod, drop it in, when they tug, lift and plop em in a coffee can, then dump in ice chest till full! There's an awesome ditch full of em on Cypress off H4, behind what is now Kragens here in Oakley!

[Pat]

Believe it or not, if you just want to buy them, our Walmart Superstore has them. Both whole or just the tails. Check the seafood counter

Pat

[Shad*Wizard]

Cooch, is that ditch polluted off of Cypress?...Someone mentioned it to me a long time ago not to eat them out of that ditch...You know more than I do about that area...

[DeltaDan]

I would not personally eat anything out of Marsh/Sand Creek ..... and Heaven forbid the channel along Jersey Island road.



Once - Some Bro's and I at work had a fish fry. One dude got wind of it and wanted some (he was stuck to a desk- giving us the orders logistically)

-- Well the fish was all gone so we ran out to a holding pond and cought some bullheads that were in a pond --- NASTY POND !!


We cought more than a dozen lickity split-- filleted them up and battered them ....... seasoned and fried in front of him so he could eat them hot...... He said they were the best things he has ever tasted !! (That old southern hillbilly tasted alot of stuff daily)

Well - he had to retire some 6 months later........ Brain cancer !!


Work has been so much more enjoyable w/o him there.



----------But to catch and use for bait -- SURE !!

[Dewayne]

Yes it is VERY polluted. The head waters of Marsh Creek run through a abandoned Merury mine. All fish in the creek are well above the safe limits for Mercury.

[Steve]

Everything in the Delta is polluted. Pollutants are heavier than water, they sink. Crawfish sit on the bottom and live/feed in the pollutants that have sunk. Crawfish have very high concentrations of polluntants. I wouldnt go anywhere near a crawfish from the Delta. Be careful buying at Asian markets, those crawfish come from the Delta no doubt.

If I were to try and find a place to catch and eat crawfish, I would go into the mountains as high as possible to get them. Or I should say, as high up off the valley floor as possible. Folsom is questionable, but I would probably eat fish and crawfish fish out of there on occassion.

[upriverLMB]

Tail Gators in Modesto serves them. The pretty little owner- bartender told me she gets them a couple times a week out of Louisiana. She said the ones from the California Delta are not FDA approved for human consumption and Louisiana’s are. I can’t imagine their swamp being any cleaner than ours though

[madddogg]

Sunday farmers market in Sacramento. There has been a guy there selling live dads. Don't remember the price or where they are from. Market is under the WX freeway around 7th street.

[stickbait]

Just got me a few out in the swamps around stockton just this morning.. Going to have a little feed today also